All of my childhood I have heard stories about my ancestors from my Russian grandmother
Maria.. One of these stories concerns our family name. She told me that the name was not
Russian, Finnish or Swedish, but that her husband (Vladimir) and mother-in-law had told
that the name originated from Scotland and was Kinnaird. Maria married my grandfather
(Vladimir Alexandrovitj Kinert) in 1914.

The story tells how the name changed in the 17th century to Kinert when the
family came to live on a small German island called Rügen. The "...ert" name
ending is typically German.

She also told us that an ancestor in 1628 was shipwrecked outside the German island
Rügen when he - as a mercenary - was on his way to enforce the Swedish army led by King
Gustavus II Adolphus in Germany.

Further research shows that in 1629 Lord Mackay's regiment of Scots, levied for service
under Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was shipwrecked off Rugen Island while on their way to
join the Swedish forces. The island administration was opposed to the Swedish king and the
Scots took over the isle and held it for more than two months until relieved by Colonel
Hepburn. In the meantime Mackay's Highlanders had crossed to the mainland and had pushed
on in their advance and captured many towns.

Some of the Kinerts were hanged, accused of being pirates. Others went on east, part of
the Great Swabian Migrations they came to Russia in 1764, during Katherine the Great's
Reign. Some of these Russian families became families of nobility. The oldest ancestor
I've been able to trace is Feodor Kinert who must have been born around 1800 in Russia.

My father Aleksander (his nickname was Dickie ) was the oldest Kinert until two years
ago when he unexpectedly passed away. He was born on 25 of May 1917 in Tsarsoye Selo (the
Tsars Village), south of Saint Petersburg, just about the time when the revolution
started. As the family in Russia was of Nobel decent, there were two alternatives - either
to become a Bolshevik and betray all your valuations, or to run. Vladimir, Maria and
family fled to Karelska Naset (Karelen) a Russian area just near the in eastern border of
Finland (this area was once part of Sweden), where they had a summer residence at Lake
Suulajarvi (called Tabor). They stayed there until the outbreak of World War II when once
again they were forced to flee. This time to Helsinki in Finland.

My father, an Officer in the Finnish army at the time, met my mother, Doris, on a train
during the Second World War. He was on his way to Helsinki from the frontline. She was
going to meet her family in Borga. My father sat down next to her to protect her from
soldiers that hadn't seen a beautiful woman in months. They got married in a hurry only
shortly after because my father, Aleksander, had to go back to the front line, and because
of his profession sometimes even behind the lines into enemy territory. Only a year after
they were married their new home was bombed in Helsinki. My eldest brother, Jorma, was a
baby at the time and my second brother, Bo-Lennart, was on his way, but fortunately they,
together with my mother, where in a shelter when the bombs fell.

My father worked for the Secret Intelligence and was not very popular with the Soviets
as he caused them a lot of problems. So much so that when the war was coming to an end
there was a lot of retributions. The Russians put pressure on the Finnish government to
hand over the intelligence staff among others. My father along with 2.000 other
Intelligence men from Finland were invited to move to Sweden in order to start what came
to be the Swedish Radio Intelligence (Försvarets RadioAnstalt - FRA). In 1944, three
overcrowded ships (6.000 people altogether) with a lot of radio equipment arrived at three
different cities along the Swedish coastline. These cities were for Gävle, Sundsvall and
Härnösand. There was one very stormy night during the operation. It was called
"Stella Polaris". This episode has been described in books, films and
TV-programs. My own family came to the city of Härnösand. Later they moved to the
suburbs of Stockholm and that's where I was born. There were five male siblings, Jorma,
Bo-Lennart (nick named Bosse), Christer (died 1994), Stefan and Maj-Len).

My father made it quite well in the new country. He spent the rest of his life working
in FRA as a code expert. He also worked for the Secret Police as an interpreter. He was
fluent in Russian, Finish and Swedish, and understood and spoke every day German and
English.

His mother Maria died in 1986 in Järfälla outside Stockholm,. She was 100 years old
and is the source for many of the stories I know about my ancestors. She moved to Sweden
when her husband Vladimir died in 1957 and lived with our family all my childhood.

Being refugees several times, there is little documentation left. Some details may have
been distorted along the way. My grandmother died in 1986 (100 years old) and I blame
myself for not being more interested when she was alive.